The Tabernacle and Priest

In the Bible reading plan I have started reading through the second half of the book of Exodus. First, we need to remember that from Exodus 19 on there is no narrative feed and some of the material is God dictating to Moses and other parts of the text are stories that fit into the Law section that gives us a clearer picture of God and His character. Remember, this book is about getting to know God and both the law and the stories work together in helping us get to know God. But as I have been reading chapters 24-31 of Exodus, 2 words stuck out to me and kept being found in the text. The words are Holiness and Atonement.

God's holiness means the He is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor. This holiness and separation of God can be found in many places throughout the text in Exodus. The current that separated the Holy of Holies, the covering of the whole tabernacle, the fence around the tabernacle, the separation of the Priest and Levites from the rest of the People, and the consecration of Aaron and his sons. All of these facts point to the holiness of God and His separation from sinful and unholy people. We to today have the same problem. We are just as unholy as the Israelites and there is no way to cross that bridge to holy. That is why we need Jesus first on the cross but also everyday reconciling us back to a holy separated God of purity.

Atonement is another word that stuck out to me. The sacrifice of the animals, the money set to God as a sacrifice from the people, are to examples from the text. Think about how much blood was spilled and how many animals died daily to pay for the sin and unholiness of the people. When you would begin to add up just some of the figures we are talking gallons of blood daily that was spilled for the people at the Tabernacle. That is a lot of atonement. Now think about the fact we as the children of God today, do not have to spill any blood ourselves or take our animals to get sacrificed. Why? Because Jesus was our atoning sacrifice on the cross and spilled all of His blood for us.